Azerbaijani, Azeri, or Azeri Turkish (Azərbaycan dili) is a language belonging to the Turkiclanguage family, spoken primarily in the South Caucasus region by the Azerbaijani people also known as Azerbaijani Turks. The language is spoken by about 32.2 million people mainly in Azerbaijan, Iran, Georgia, Russia and Turkey, and also in Iraq, Syria and Turkmenistan. North Azerbaijani is spoken in Azerbaijan, where it is the official language, and also southern Dagestan, in the southern Caucasus Mountains and in parts of Central Asia. There are around 7.3 million native speakers of north Azerbaijani, and another 8 million second language speakers. South Azerbaijani has about 16.9 million speakers mainly in the northwest of Iran, where it is known as Türki, and also in parts of Iraq and Turkey. Azerbaijani is a member of the Oghuz branch of the Turkic languages. It is closely related to Turkish, Qashqai, Turkmen and Crimean Tatar with which it is, to varying degrees, mutually intelligible.[4]

Today′s Azerbaijani languages evolved from the Eastern Oghuz branch of Western (Oghuz) Turkic[5] which spread to the Caucasus, in Eastern Europe,[6][7] and northern Iran, in Western Asia, during the medieval Turkic migrations, and has been heavily influenced by Persian.[8]Arabic also influenced the language, but Arabic words were mainly transmitted through the intermediary of literary Persian.[9]

Garden of Pleasures by Fuzûlî in Azerbaijani. Early 19th century. There is Shaki khan's seal on it. Museum of History of Azerbaijan

Azerbaijani gradually supplanted the Iranian languages in what is now northern Iran, and a variety of Caucasian languages in the Caucasus, particularly Udi. By the beginning of the 16th century, it had become the dominant language of the region, and was a spoken language in the court of the Safavid Empire.

The historical development of Azerbaijani can be divided into two major periods: early (c. 16th to 18th century) and modern (18th century to present). Early Azerbaijani differs from its descendant in that it contained a much larger number of Persian, and Arabic loanwords, phrases and syntactic elements. Early writings in Azerbaijani also demonstrate linguistic interchangeability between Oghuz and Kypchak elements in many aspects (such as pronouns, case endings, participles, etc.). As Azerbaijani gradually moved from being merely a language of epic and lyric poetry to being also a language of journalism and scientificresearch, its literary version has become more or less unified and simplified with the loss of many archaic Turkic elements, stilted Iranisms and Ottomanisms, and other words, expressions, and rules that failed to gain popularity among the Azerbaijani-speaking masses.

Between c. 1900 and 1930, there were several competing approaches to the unification of the national language in Azerbaijan popularized by the literati, such as Hasan bey Zardabi and Mammad agha Shahtakhtinski. Despite major differences, they all aimed primarily at making it easy for semi-literate masses to read and understand literature. They all criticized the overuse of Persian, Arabic, Ottoman Turkish, and other foreign (mainly Russian) elements in both colloquial and literary language and called for a simpler and more popular style.

The Russian conquest of the South Caucasus in the 19th century split the language community across two states; the Soviet Union promoted development of the language, but set it back considerably with two successive script changes[10] – from Perso-Arabic script to Latin and then to Cyrillic – while Iranian Azerbaijanis continued to use the Perso-Arabic script as they always had. Despite the wide use of Azerbaijani in Azerbaijan during the Soviet era, it became the official language of Azerbaijan only in 1956.[11] After independence, Azerbaijan decided to switch to the Latin script.

Classical literature in Azerbaijani was formed in the fifteenth century[12] based on the various Early Middle Ages dialects of Tabriz and Shirvan (these dialects were used by classical Azerbaijani writers Nasimi, Fuzuli, and Khatai). Modern literature in Azerbaijan is based on the Shirvani dialect mainly, while in Iran it is based on the Tabrizi one. The first newspaper in Azerbaijani, Əkinçi was published in 1875.

Azerbaijani language is sometimes considered a variety of Turkish language. Azerbaijani is sometimes classified as two languages or dialects, North and South Azerbaijani. Although there is a fair degree of mutual intelligibility between them, there are also morphological and phonological differences. Four varieties have been accorded ISO 639-3 codes: North Azerbaijani, South Azerbaijani, Salchuq, and Qashqai. Glottolog, based on Johanson (2006) and Pakendorf (2007), classifies North Azeri with Salchuq in one branch of the Oghuz languages, and South Azeri with Qashqai in another.

North Azerbaijani,[20] or North Azeri, is the official language of Azerbaijan. It is closely related to the modern Turkish due to the fact that Azerbaijani language is a Turkic language. It is also spoken in southern Dagestan, along the Caspian coast in the southern Caucasus Mountains, and scattered through Central Asia. There are some 7.3 million native speakers, and about 8 million second-language speakers.

The Shirvan dialect is the basis of Standard Azerbaijani. Since 1992, it has been officially written with a Latin/Roman script in Azerbaijan, but the older Cyrillic script was still widely used in the late 1990s.[21]

South Azerbaijani,[22] or South Azeri, is spoken in northwestern Iran and to a lesser extent in neighboring regions of Iraq and Turkey, with smaller communities in Afghanistan and Syria. In Iran, the Persian word for Azerbaijani is Torki,[23] which literally means Turkish; in Azerbaijani it is usually pronounced as Türkü. In Iran, it is spoken in East Azerbaijan and West Azerbaijan, Ardabil, Zanjan, and parts of Kurdistan, Hamadan, Markazi, Qazvin and Gilan. It is also spoken in some districts of Tehran and across Tehran Province. Most sources report the percentage of South Azerbaijani speakers at around 16 percent of the Iranian population, or approximately 16.9 million people worldwide.[24]

/t͡ʃ/ and /d͡ʒ/ are realised as [t͡s] and [d͡z] respectively in the areas around Tabriz and to the west, south and southwest of Tabriz (including Kirkuk in Iraq); in the Nakhchivan and Ayrum dialects, in Cəbrayil and some Caspian coastal dialects;[25]

In most dialects of Azerbaijani, /c/ is realized as [ç] when it is found in the coda position or is preceded by a voiceless consonant (as in çörək[t͡ʃøˈɾæç] – "bread"; səksən[sæçˈsæn] – "eighty").

/k/ appears only in words borrowed from Russian or French (spelled, as with /c/, with a k).

In the Baku dialect, /ov/ may be realised as [oʊ], and /ev/ and /øv/ as [œy], e.g. /ɡovurˈmɑ/ → [ɡoʊrˈmɑ], /sevˈdɑ/ → [sœyˈdɑ], /dœvˈrɑn/ → [dœyˈrɑn], as well as with surnames ending in -ov/-ev (borrowed from Russian).[26]

The vowels of the Azerbaijani language are, in their alphabetical order, a, e, ə, ı, i, o, ö, u, ü. There are no diphthongs in Azerbaijani when two vowels come together, which occurs in some Arabic loanwords, each vowel retains its individual sound.

Before 1929, Azerbaijani was written only in the Perso-Arabic script. In 1929–1938 a Latin alphabet was in use for North Azerbaijani (although it was different from the one used now), from 1938 to 1991 the Cyrillic script was used, and in 1991 the current Latin alphabet was introduced, although the transition to it has been rather slow. In Iran, Azerbaijani is still written in Perso-Arabic script.

The problem with the Perso-Arabic and Cyrillic alphabets is that vowels are not marked, especially when Azerbaijani has 9 vowels like ö, ü, i, and ı. Perso-Arabic and Cyrillic alphabets and letters are not fitting the Azerbaijani pronunciation. The Azerbaijani Latin alphabet fits Azerbaijani language better than any other alphabet.The Azerbaijani Latin alphabet is the same as the Turkish Latin alphabet because they are both Turkic and mutually intelligible, except for Әə, Xx, and Qq, the letters for sounds which do not exist as separate phonemes in Turkish. Keep in mind that the letter "c" in Azerbaijani and Turkish pronounced like English j and "ç" is pronounced like English ch.

The following letters are in Latin (Azerbaijan since 1991) & Perso-Arabic (Iran; Azerbaijan until 1922).

Aa ﺍ

- short as in 'along' or long as in 'army'.

Bb ﺏ

- pronounced like 'b' in 'bell'.

Cc ﺝ

- pronounced like 'J' in Japan.

Çç چ

- pronounced like 'ch' in chat..

Dd ﺩ

- pronounced like 'd' in death; otherwise, like 'th' in 'the'.

Ee ﻩ

- pronounced like soft 'e' in Embassy. This can be long as in 'bate'.

Əə ع

- pronounced like 'a' in fat. (This letter was represented by Ää from 1991-1992). This is long as in 'bate' or 'cape'.

Ff ﻑ

- pronounced like 'f' in 'fold'.

Gg گ

- pronounced like hard 'g' in goal.

Ğğ ﻍ

- pronounced at the back of throat like the French 'r'

Hh ﺡ / ﻩ

- pronounced like 'h' in 'hat'.

Xx ﺥ

- pronounced like 'Spanish j' (or 'Persian kh').

Iı ی

- pronounced like 'u' in 'butter' or 'Sutton'.

İi ی

- pronounced like 'i' in 'pit'. This can be 'ee' as in 'meet'.

Jj ژ

- pronounced like 'j' (or 'zh') in déjà vu.

Kk ک

- pronounced like 'k' in 'kill'.

Qq ﻕ

- pronounced like 'q' in 'Qatar'; usually a slide between 'g' in 'goal' and 'k' in 'kill'.

In 1992–1993, when Azerbaijan Popular Front Party was in power in Azerbaijan, the official language of Azerbaijan was renamed by the parliament as Türk dili ("Turkish"). However, since 1994 the Soviet-era name of the language, Azərbaycan dili ("Azerbaijani"), has been re-established and reflected in the Constitution. Varlıq, the most important literary Azerbaijani magazine published in Iran, uses the term Türki ("Turkish" in English or "Torki" in Persian) to refer to the Azerbaijani language. South Azerbaijani speakers in Iran often refer to the language as Türki, distinguishing it from İstanbul Türki ("Istanbul Turkish"), the official language of Turkey. Some people also consider Azerbaijani to be a dialect of a greater Turkish language and call it Azərbaycan Türkcəsi ("Azerbaijani Turkish or Turkish of Azerbaijan"), and scholars such as Vladimir Minorsky used this definition in their works. ISO encodes its two varieties, North Azerbaijani and South Azerbaijani, as distinct languages. According to the Linguasphere Observatory, all Oghuz languages form part of a single "outer language" of which North and South Azerbaijani are "inner languages".

Notice that Azerbaijani has informal and formal ways of saying things. This is because there is more than one meaning to "you" in Turkic languages like Azerbaijani and Turkish (as well as in many other languages). The informal you is used when talking to close friends, relatives, animals or children. The formal you is used when talking to someone who is older than you or someone for whom you would like to show respect (a professor, for example). As in many Romance languages, personal pronouns can be omitted, and they are only added for emphasis. Azerbaijani is a very phonetic language, so pronunciation is very easy. Most words are pronounced exactly as they are spelled.

^Homa Katouzian (2003) Iranian history and politics, Routledge, pg 128: "Indeed, since the formation of the Ghaznavids state in the tenth century until the fall of Qajars at the beginning of the twentieth century, most parts of the Iranian cultural regions were ruled by Turkic-speaking dynasties most of the time. At the same time, the official language was Persian, the court literature was in Persian, and most of the chancellors, ministers, and mandarins were Persian speakers of the highest learning and ability"